I'm new here and new to smoking, but I plan on smoking my first Pork Butt soon and was wondering if I could prep my butt the night before with a mustard coat and a rub, then pop it back in the fridge for the morning when I'm ready to get it going?

At home I inject, heavy rub, then mustard slather. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put back in the refridgerator overnight. When i wake up i take it out of the fridge and let it sit out while i'm getting the smoker up to temperature and preped. I like to warm the smoker up probably 20-50 degrees warmer than i plan to cook and place it in. Get your temp set and LEAVE IT CLOSED!. Some times i will add some more rub and/or mustard slather right before it goes in. Just play with it and find out what you like but it's definatly not a bad idea to prep it the day before. A LOT of us do it this way.

The general consensus on the forum is that in the interest of food safety you shouldn't inject the butt until the outside temperature of the butt has reached 135 degrees.The marinade and needle should also be sterilized before injection. By injecting the night before you are introducing bacteria into the muscle of the meat and it is highly unlikely that you will get internal temperatures above 135 degrees in 4 hours to satisfy the 4 hour rule. This has been debated quite a bit on the forum and we the moderators of the forum have the responsibility of ensuring that new smokers are aware of proper food safety procedures. We also are not the food police and if you wish to inject the night before no one is going to stop you. Just be aware that if serving to an at risk population you can make them ill.

I suggest you do a tremendous rub the night before and if you wish to inject do it with sterile marinade and needle after the meat has been in a hot smoker for at least one hour. We also do not recommend allowing the meat to sit out of refrigeration prior to smoking.

In my opinion yes, you can add a bit of moisture during the foil phase. You can also make a delicious finishing sauce to mix with the meat once pulled but I doubt it will be required if you cook it properly. Foiling goes a long way to making it tender and helping it retain moisture. Normally when we inject a pork butt it is to add flavor and not necessarily to add moisture. Those things are full of fat and they are not difficult to keep moist.

A pork butt really isn't that hard for a beginner (speaking as a beginner), I just did my second a few weeks back and rubbed it the night before. No injection or marinade and I didn't foil it per SmokinAl's No Foil Pork Butt. I did spritz it occasionally with apple juice but not often and it was to die for! Good luck and let us know with pics how it turned out.

haven't had a problem getting butts over 140 in 4 hours with injecting and tightly wrapping night before. depends on your temp and style i believe. if you inject and smoke a massive shoulder at 185 then i could see the problem with bacteria but as far as 10# down no problems with acheving temps. I us an et-73 to ensure this. I am also a fan of injecting and putting straight in, i just like to give it a chance to distribute itself.